It's
just a short drive, a jump to the left...and to the
right...and shoot....and jump...but it's insane fun.by Darwin C.

June
9, 2006 - Simplicity
is often missing in today's video games. Game controllers
have more buttons, which translates into developers
creating uses for them which results in some games
being overly difficult to control. Back in the day
when arcades ruled the gaming world, games had a couple
of buttons [with the exception of Defender] and that's
all you needed to lose yourself for hours in the seediest
area of town.

Bigbig's
Pursuit Force takes me right back to the games I used
to play with my dad and older brother in Pirate's
Paradise, the local arcade at the mall. Chase H.Q.,
APB, Roadblasters...these games were all about chasing
down crooks with your souped up wheels and either
ramming them to a fiery and horrible death or shooting
them until they exploded. Hell yeah! Pursuit Force
for the PSP is one such animal. It's not hard to learn,
it doesn't feature a million buttons and the action
is completely over-the-top, right along with the hilarious
characters you'll be hunting down. Your character
is a rookie cop in Capital City and apparently the
only one on payroll besides the Chief, as he's the
only dude in town who gets called for these dangerous
missions. You've got 5 nasty gangs to drag kicking
and screaming to justice and they're as insane as
the rest of the game. In a good way!

The
gameplay remains unchanged for most of the game and
follows this sequence - chase down a gang member,
jump to his/her vehicle, avoid bullets as they shoot
at you on the outside, don't fall off when they try
and shake you off, jump through the window and start
shooting them at point blank range. Once they're incapacitated,
take their wheels and attempt to nab the rest of them
before they manage to make it to the city limits or
some other determined point of no return. Things do
change up every so often with new vehicles to play
with such as motorcycles and boats, on-rails shooting
levels and the occassional onfoot missions, but for
the most part you'll be speeding along the open road,
looking for trouble.

Sure
that sounds a little repetitive and boring, but I
assure you, it's just the way I'm telling it. Pursuit
Force is a whole heckuva lot of arcady-crazy fun although
it does suffer from some really hard missions and
the odd pang of deja vu. The PSP was made for a game
like this. The visuals are really bright and crisp
and the frame rate doesn't suffer at all. Or at least,
that I really noticed. The sense of speed is awesome
and so is the sense of fun; leaping from one vehicle
to another is such an action-hero staple that I'm
surprised it hasn't really been done until now. The
missions are generally over fairly quickly, aside
from a few really tough ones you'll run into. This
makes the pick up and play aspect of Pursuit Force
perfect for the PSP. There were a lot of P's in that
last sentence in case you didn't notice. Since the
the game has its tongue firmly planted in its cheek,
you'll come up against a few familiar missions yanked
directly from the annals of pop culture. The replay
value of PF is actually quite high since you'll want
to go back and attempt to achieve higher ranks to
unlock some handy cheats such as sticky feet so you
can't be thrown off cars and invincibility.

Controlling
the automobiles in PF is generally a breeze, but the
boats and motorcycles really annoyed me at times,
since the motorcycles seem bulkier to control at times
than the cars and the boats are sluggish and have
a much more restricted turning radius. I don't know
why Bigbig felt it necessary to toss in an ounce of
realism, when everything else is so loosey-goosey.
While you're driving you can shoot at other vehicles
which takes a bit of getting used to, but isn't hard
to master. Once you get your butt on the opponents
car, you'll be able to dodge bullets (?!) and attack
offensively, while attempting to hang on with the
use of the d-pad.

Everything
in terms of graphics gets a Grade A. The vehicles
are boss, the backgrounds are detailed an look great
and the character animation and design is fantastic.
Some of it is pure cheese in terms of seriousness,
but it's supposed to be like that. The voice-acting
is not only well done but completely hilarious - as
everything is overacted and dramatic, yet totally
funny.

If
you're ever pissed at the main mode and want to relax
a bit, try the Time Trial and Race Mode, neither of
which are particularly deep but are a decent time
waster. The Time Trial is exactly what you'd think
- haul ass before the timer runs out. Race mode involves
racing towards a finish line because of some thinly
veiled excuse to do so. These modes are fun, but nothing
to get excited about. Unfortunately there are no multiplayer
modes whatsoever which would have been cool.

Pursuit
Force comes off as though it is the type of game we'd
be playing if true 3D gaming had never been conceived
and it succeeds for the most part. There are some
bumps along the way, but nothing that leads to that
much frustration that you'll want to hurl your PSP
out the window. It's the perfect game to pick up and
play here and there and has enough replay value, that
you'll want to go back and earn higher rankings to
unlock those cool cheats. Just like our rookie cop,
take a leap of faith and pursue Pursuit Force today!

Features:

Unique
mechanic of being able to jump between vehicles
on land, water and air. Fight on vehicles, dodge
bullets as you hang on at speeds over 150mph. Shoot
vehicles whilst driving using a variety of weapons.